Tag Archives: I.P.A.

A few of my beer drinking buddies have shed a few tears because we can’t get Brew Dog’s Punk IPA here in Ontario anymore. It showed up briefly at local LCBO’s and then vanished just as quickly, never to be seen again.

I remember trying it, and at the time, I thought it fairly easy drinking, but really neither here nor there. I must be clear though, that is in no way a comment on Brew Dog’s brewing, it’s because I’m not the biggest fan of Nelsen Sauvin hops, which they use a lot of. I know, some of you out there are cursing me as I say that, but it’s just my personal taste, nothing more.

I must repeat, my personal taste is in no way a reflection of my opinion of Brew Dog itself. Brew Dogs’ story is extremely inspiring. The way they were able to grow as a result of thinking outside the box in both marketing approach, and financing, have most start-ups drooling. Not to mention their videos are a blast to watch! Check out their take on Punk IPA:

They seem like a bunch of very fun dudes. I seriously wish them nothing but a continuation of their already very successful trajectory.

So, back to our dilemma, since we have no Punk IPA in these parts, what to do? David Thompson, who was over a ways back to collaborate on a brew to clone Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, brought with him a clone he made of Punk IPA. If I remember correctly, it tasted pretty spot on to what I remember the original tasting like. The signature obviously being the hop profile. I asked him to send me the recipe he had for future reference, which he kindly did. I’ve had it tucked it away all this time, and thought now would be a good time to give it a go as I hate to see tears on my friends faces when hey can’t get a beer they want. (haha, just teasing you Brewtal Honesty!)

Looking to Brew Dog’s site for some verification, I tweaked the recipe slightly to match the information I was able to glean from it:

ABV: 5.6%

OG: 1053

IBU’s: 45

100% Marris Otter Extra Pale Malt

Chinook, Simcoe, Ahtanum, Nelson Sauvin

David’s recipe had no 60 min addition in it, which I found interesting, so I opted to toss a tiny bit of Chinook in at 60mins just for fun. Maybe omitting the 60 min addition is part of the magic? I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

One other thing I don’t know is what kind of yeast they use. I usually start off with my old standby of US-05 first to see if everything else is in line, and then play with the yeast after I’ve established the general idea.

A NOTE ON THE RECIPE: Having the last hop addition calculated at 1 minute puts the IBU’s high at 57, but having them at flameout drops them to 36, even though you’d still get some IBU’s while whirlpooling/standing to chill. I’m going by what David did originally, which was delicious, but to match the original, I may need to tweak this. Either way, the combo is going to provide that special Punk IPA profile.

I had tasted my version before this and really liked it, but had no idea how it would stack up to the real thing. Turns out, they were both excellent IPA’s, but there were some definite differences…

Appearance

colour was slightly darker in my version

foam stability was about the same

Malt & Body

malt character was more complex and richer in the original

body was slightly more full in the original

Hops

This is where I noticed the biggest difference. The h0p aroma was more present in mine due to freshness, but it had an entirely different character than the original. Mine had a very dominant ‘rose’ character to it, something I had never experienced in a beer before. I did read an article in Zymurgy recently that discussed how the finished aroma of dry hopping can be incredibly different depending on how much yeast is present in the beer. There are numerous bio-reactions that happen that convert and change the myriad molecules involved in hop aroma. I was in a bit of a rush to get this one kegged to see whether or not it was worthy of a NHC submission, so I did something I had never done before. Continue reading →

Firestone Walker is not a name you hear too often up here in Toronto. We kind of live behind an iron curtain of sorts when it comes to the amazing selection of craft beers in the United States.

As my interest in the American craft beer scene deepens, I’ve been hearing more and more about them. It seems like they have something very special going on out there in Paso Robles, California. For starters, they are the only brewery in North America that uses a “Burton Union” style fermentation system, aptly titled the “Firestone Union“.

Of their many award winning beers, one has become a classic example of the west coast style IPA, Union Jack IPA. I’ve been reading Mitch Steele’s IPA book and For The Love of Hops by Stan Hieronymus recently, which has got me very inspired to brew some heavily hopped beers. Lucky for us, in both books, the brewers at Firestone Walker have been kind enough to let us in on how they make it.

This coming weekend, April 20-22, Bar Volo will be hosting the 4th annual Cask Days IPA Challenge. The Challenge Spin Off is on Friday from 2:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. and features out of style IPA’s like Black IPA, Belgian IPA, Double IPA and other experimental IPA’s from breweries around the province.

One of these brews is called “Mangoverboard IPA”. My buddy Zack of Toronto Brewing teamed up with Mike Lackey of Great Lakes Brewery to brew a batch of this using freshly juiced and then frozen mangoes, topped up with my all time favourite hop: Citra. (check out the bag on my shoulder!)

I had the pleasure of hanging out at Great Lakes Brewery for the afternoon and meeting Mike, Rob, Adrian & Harman. It was great to check out the setup. When I arrived, Mike & Harman were in the middle of brewing their second of three batches planned for the day of an “American Farmhouse Ale”. There’s nothing like the heavenly smell of a brew in action. Mike’s planning to try open fermentation for the first time to hopefully get some authentic farmhouse character. We obviously don’t have the same air quality as rural Belgium, but hopefully things will go well and bring something unique and tasty to the brew.

To prepare the Mangoverboard IPA for friday’s opening night, we added some more mango and dry hopped it with an addition of citra hops, half of them whole leaf and half in pellets. I’m sure this will be a killer IPA after a few days of stewing. I can’t wait to try this, along with the many great beers that will be at the IPA Challenge this weekend. If you’re in the Toronto area, come down and check it out!!

attention: A monkey has been caught.

This beer rocks. Both of them.

I’m happy to say, this first attempt at brewing a Smashbomb Atomic I.P.A. is fantastic. I actually ended up drinking more of it than the original over the weekend. (sorry Peter! we still love Flying Monkeys!) Truth be told, I had a LOT of info to go on with this one. Yes, I did have to actually brew it myself, but, there were a lot of numbers to shoot for, so thank you once again Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery.

I really wish I could just pour you one and have you taste it for yourself and not have to describe it, because it’s just plain delicious. If you like Smashbomb, or citrusy IPA’s, you should definitely brew this and see for yourself. For me, there’s nothing like the Centennial/Citra combo.

I was unsure how my hopping schedule was going to stand up against the original, but it nailed it. Perhaps a tiny addition around 30mins might put a little more in the middle, but it’s not something I missed. My brother in law and I put away a few of these before Easter dinner, and despite trying to, we could only split hairs on the differences.